know nothing

[Eng. know, and nothing.) A member of a secret political a ociation in the United States, organized for the purpose of obtaining the repeal of the naturalization law, and of the law which permitted others than native Americans to hold office. It started in 1853, and lasted two or three years. The principles of the Know nothing party were embodied in the following propositions (at New York, 1855): 1. The Americans shall rule America. 2. The Union of these States. 3. No North, no South, no East, no West. 4. The United States of America-as they are-one and inseparable. 5. No sectarian interferences in our legislation or in the administration of American law. 6. Hostility to the a umption of the pope, through the bishops, ., in a republic sanctified by Prot estant blood. 7. Thorough reform in the naturalization laws. pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, põt, know nothingism 8. Free and liberal educational institutions for all sects and cla es, with the Bible, God's holy word, as a universal text-book. A society was formed in 1855 in opposition to the above, called Know somethings. Both bodies were absorbed into the two parties, Democrats and Republicans, at the presidential election in November, 1856.